BEIJING - Airborne and underground firefighting units will be established in the city to further strengthen its ability to fight blazes.

Under the Beijing fire department's 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015), 54 new fire stations will be established in the next four years, which include a helicopter firefighting and rescue team and six stations for combating fires underground.

"Beijing will face even tougher challenges in the near future with the steady spread of high-rise buildings and underground spaces," Zhang Gaochao, chief of Beijing fire control bureau, said at a news briefing on Friday.

As part of the effort, the fire department will purchase two heavy-duty helicopters. The airborne team will be based in the northwestern outskirts of the city.

The plan mentions the difficulties of fire control in the 11,664 high-rise buildings, 108 million square meter underground spaces and 4,500 institutions with flammable and explosive goods across the city.

However, as fire control of skyscrapers remains a tough issue in cities across the country, the authority warns that precautionary measures remain a key part of the fire control service.

"The highest fire ladder can barely reach 100 meters. Yet the highest skyscrapers in Beijing are already over 300 meters," said Ma Jianmin, a fire control official. "It is important that developers consider fire safety before the skyscraper is constructed."

According to Ma, the fire authority also plans to tighten fire protection in the city's subway system, which handles more than 5 million individual trips a day. It will establish a team responsible for the fire safety of the rail transit system.

The fire department in Beijing lags behind that in major international cities, according to the five-year plan.

Beijing has 89 fire stations, 6,553 firefighters and 622 fire engines serving 19.6 million people in 6,290 square kilometers.

The figure is far behind major international cities like Tokyo and New York. In Tokyo, there are 17,969 firefighters at 215 fire stations. The city has 1,870 fire engines and six helicopters.

In 2010, a blaze in a 28-story downtown Shanghai apartment building claimed 58 lives.